How Pres. Obama pissed me off

OK dear readers... work with me here... if you are a left wing nut, then, substitute Bush or Reagan or Nixon or some other Republican President instead of President Obama in the following sequence of events. If you are a right wing nut, then... ah... Hmmm...

Anyway, most of you are not going to believe this, because you've allowed the media to paint a picture of a politician, who is after.... ah... a politician - and politicians have speech writers, and people who advice them about what to say... but... 

In President Obama’s speech about jobs that he delivered last Thursday at a General Electric manufacturing plant in Wisconsin, he said:

“A lot of young people no longer see the trades and skilled manufacturing as a viable career, but I promise you folks can make a lot more potentially with skilled manufacturing or the trades than they might with an art history degree. Now, there’s nothing wrong with an art history degree; I love art history, so I don’t want to get a bunch of e-mails from everybody."
         - President Barack Obama, 1/30/14

Guess what sir, you will get an email from me and also a letter... in fact it is already sent and it says:

Dear President Obama,

You recently delivered a speech about jobs at the General Electric manufacturing plant in Waukesha, Wisconsin on January 30, 2014, in which you said:

“A lot of young people no longer see the trades and skilled manufacturing as a viable career, but I promise you folks can make a lot more potentially with skilled manufacturing or the trades than they might with an art history degree. Now, there’s nothing wrong with an art history degree; I love art history, so I don’t want to get a bunch of e-mails from everybody.”

Personally, I think that you appreciate the arts and the humanities, although your art acquisition program for the White House is a little lacking. But, in fact, you are the first president in history to begin issuing official White House proclamations observing the month of October as National Arts & Humanities Month. You have also urged the nation to celebrate the arts and humanities in our cities, schools, and homes because you claim to understand the role that they serve in our nation’s history, cultural identity, educational development, and individual creativity.

However, some of what I thought we knew about you and the arts, specifically the role that it plays in the economy, now seems in doubt (based on that speech) and I would like to take this opportunity to inform you about the important role the arts and humanities serve in our nation’s economy as well.

Did you know that according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis and the National Endowment for the Arts, the nonprofit and commercial arts combined produce a remarkable $504 billion in goods and services annually in the United States, representing 3.2 percent of the nation’s economy?

Did any of your advisors tell you that before that disturbing statement in Wisconsin?

Did you know that according to Americans for the Arts, nonprofit arts and culture organizations alone generate $135.2 billion of economic activity every year and support 4.13 million full-time equivalent jobs—including art historians?

4.13 million Mr. President... that's a lot of jobs in this anemic economy.

Did you know that creativity is one of the most important factors in producing innovation, and that according to the Conference Board, 72 percent of employers say creativity is of primary concern when they’re hiring, yet 85 percent of these employers can’t find the creative applicants they seek?

President Obama, the arts equal jobs, too. I urge you to meet with arts policy experts to incorporate the arts and culture into your economic strategies and policies to move America forward.

Call me.

Very Respectfully,

Lenny Campello

The Arts Action Fund has prepared an open letter to the President that brings to his attention the fact that the arts equal jobs too. We all need your help to send a clear and powerful message to the President. I used their open letter to re-craft it into mine.... but it takes a few seconds to send President Obama a rudder check on his attitude on this subject.

Please add your name to this letter, as well as encourage your friends to do the same.

Response from Bethesda Magazine

A while back I wrote a letter to Bethesda Magazine complaining about their lack of visual arts coverage for their readers. You can read that here.

And here is their response:

Mr. Campello,

Thanks for your thoughtful email.

I wanted to let you know that I agree with much of what you wrote--and that you will be seeing more coverage of the arts in Bethesda Magazine starting with the September/October issue. (You will also see some coverage in our upcoming March/April issue.)

I also agree with you about the Best of Bethesda, and we will have at least one arts category in next year's issue.

Thank you again for taking the time to write.

Steve Hull
Editor-in-Chief and Publisher
Bethesda Magazine
7768 Woodmont Ave., #204
Bethesda, MD 20814
301-718-7787, ext. 201
www.BethesdaMagazine.com

Campello Seahawks Salsa

That's a big ass sized bowl of my world famous (cough, cough) mango cilantro salsa... Marinating for a day so that it is ready to celebrate the Seahawks' victory tomorrow...

If it looks kinda orange is because of either all the mango juice in it or the fact that it predicts the ass whooping that the Seahawks are about to unleash on the Broncos tomorrow... they will make salsa out of them!

1 Large can of tomato sauce - the BIG can
1 can of mango juice (Goya is best)
1 entire bunch of cilantro, all chopped up
1/3 can of corn
1 chopped (small pieces) cucumber
1 chopped (tiny pieces) sweet onion
a lot of chopped garlic
About ten pieces of chopped frozen mango 
10 shakes of paprika
A few shakes of crushed red pepper
Juice from one lemon or one lime or both
Add a lot of hot sauce to your taste - Cubans don't eat spicy foods, so my version is pretty tame... sometimes I add chopped olives stuffed with pimentos, but that's an acquired taste... you can also add chopped up pineapple and/or peaches if you like a fruitier version.

Sometimes I add some beer to it... sometimes a little wine vinegar.

Go Hawks!

At Capitol Arts Network

Capitol Arts Network, the Washington area’s fastest-growing organization for professional and emerging artists, announced that its February show will feature invited artist Pam Rogers, whose work focuses on the relationship between people and nature.

The organization’s monthly exhibition, titled “Tokens and Sentiments” to coincide with the Valentines season,  also will include offerings by artists from across the National Capital region in a show billed as “a unique, real-world take on love and romance that is not necessarily the greeting-card version of the story,” said Capitol Arts Network Executive Director Judith HeartSong. “This month, the artists have been encouraged to think outside the box with florals, designs, poetry and more to offer their real-life version of a Valentine in this modern age.”

Best of DC

WCP has a "Best Art Blog" category this year... I need Kriston to email me that software that he used to cheat the Internets into voting him "Best Looking DC Art Critic" or whatever it was a few years ago...

Cough, cough....

Vote here!

Time for the 2014 Trawick Prize!

The application process for the 2014 Trawick Prize: BethesdaContemporary Art Awards is now open. This competition, produced by the Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District, awards one of the largest cash prizes given to a visual artist, with a top prize of $10,000. The competition’s founder, the amazing Carol Trawick (we all wish we had another dozen folks like her around the DMV), is committed to annually honoring visual artists with this award. The deadline to apply is April 7.

The awards are as follows:

Best in Show - $10,000
Second Place - $2,000
Third Place - $1,000
Young Artists* - $1,000
*Young Artist whose birthday is after April 7, 1984 may be awarded this prize.

Artists who are 18 years of age or older and permanent, full-time residents of Maryland, Virginia or Washington, D.C., are eligible to submit an application. For additional eligibility requirements and to access the application please visit their website.

The jury will select up to 10 finalists who will be invited to display their work in a group exhibition at Gallery B in downtown Bethesda in September 2014. 

The three judge panel includes: Tom Ashcraft, visual artist, founding member of Workingman Collective and Associate Professor and the head of Sculpture in the School of Art at George Mason University, Laure Drogoul, interdisciplinary artist, Director of The 14Karat Cabaret and Co-organizer and Curator of the Transmodern Festivaland Jeremy Drummond, media artist and Assistant Professor of Art in the Department of Art and Art History at the University of Richmond.

Sussanna Thornton